


you agreed to give me everything

by torigates



Category: Happy Endings (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Alex doesn't want to marry Dave</p>
            </blockquote>





	you agreed to give me everything

 

 

 

  
1.

 

The first time Alex thinks she might not want to marry Dave Rose she’s fourteen years old. Dave, Penny, and Jane are studying for a Spanish test, and Dave is talking about the date he had with Jennifer Fitzpatrick.

Alex isn’t even in the same room. She’s in the kitchen, her math textbook spread out in front of her as she tries to understand the point of trigonometry. Dave is just so _loud_. And obnoxious, and Alex doesn’t understand why anyone would even want to go on a date with him in the first place. He’s annoying, and stupid, and annoying. She thought that already, but it was extra true. Very, very... annoying.

“Hey, Al,” he said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a cub out of the cupboard and filling it with juice. Even that he does annoyingly, and Alex isn’t sure why it bothers her so much. She’s seen him do the same thing countless times, but right now all she wants to do is punch him in the face for being so _stupid_ and for not understanding. Alex isn’t entirely sure what she wants him to understand, but she knows he doesn’t. Because he’s stupid. And annoying.

She grunts out a “Hey,” and Dave goes back into the living room.

Alex hates him.

 

2.

 

“Happy Valentine’s day, Al,” Dave says coming to sit down next to her on the couch. He hands her an envelope.

Alex smiles over at him, and takes it out of his hand. Inside there’s a card. Dave had written “To Alex, From Dave,” and there was forty dollars tucked inside. She turns to look at him, and his eyes are bright, excited. “What’s this?” she asks.

“Your Valentine’s gift,” he says, slinging an arm around her shoulders. His body is warm and familiar next to hers.

She looks over at the dinner she prepared for the two of them, and the stack of homemade coupons that are still sitting on the table. Dave had only briefly looked through them before starting on his dinner.

It shouldn’t be like this, she thinks. She should say something, put up some kind of argument, but she can’t deny the forty bucks will come in handy later this week. She’s been strapped for cash, and as much as she might have liked chocolate or flowers, or jewelry (yeah right, like that would happen) this is practical. It makes sense. Just like them, she supposes.

Still, it hurts. Dave presses a kiss to her temple and the moment passes before she can talk to him about it.

 

3.

 

Dave is down on one knee, holding a ring up to her, and the words, “Alex, will you marry me?” are coming out of his mouth.

Mentally, Alex is able to process that this is something that is happening to her. Dave is proposing. _Marriage_. Emotionally, on the other hand, she’s having a bit of an out of body experience. How is this something that’s happening to her? She can’t get married! They still fight about who’s turn it is to take out the trash, Dave leaves his gross socks everywhere, and the last time they agreed on quality television programming was probably back in the late 90s. How are they two people who could possibly ever get married?

She looks down at the ring again, and back to Dave’s face. It’s bright and earnest, and yes, there is love there too. He looks happy, and the ring is beautiful.

“Al?” he asks.

She looks back at his face, and whispers “Yes?”

It’s not until after, when he’s hugging her and the ring is on her finger that she thinks she’s not sure which question she was answering.

 

4.

 

The dress is tight around her ribs, and the shop is unusually warm. Alex feels lost inside a mass of white lace and tool (“ _off_ -white,” Jane’s voice echoes in her head. “White is _so_ eighties,” as if Alex even knows what that _means_ ).

In the mirror her face is pale and her eyes are wide, and Alex almost doesn’t recognize herself.

“Al?” Penny’s voice comes from the sitting room. She and Jane and (strangely enough) Max are waiting for her to come out in this wedding dress and Alex has a sudden moment of clarity that this is not where her life was meant to take her. This is not right.

“Alex?” Jane calls, and pokes her head into the fitting room. “Everything okay?” she asks.

Alex tries to nod, tries to smile, tries to do anything other than stand in frozen horror and stare at her reflection.

“Oh my god,” Jane says. “That dress is horrible. Take it off immediately.”

Alex does and feels better. The next dress she tries on is beautiful and it feels right. It’s _her_ dress. That feeling of panic, however, doesn’t completely go away.

 

5.

“STOP!”

Everyone turns to face the intruder, and Alex immediately recognizes Bo, the delivery guy. He roller skates ( _roller skates_ , really?) down the aisle.

“Alex, I love you,” he pants. He’s sweaty and gross looking and Alex wishes it weren’t happening. Wishes he wasn’t here. She wishes _she_ wasn’t here.

“What’s happening here?” Dave says beside her.

Strangely, that’s what sets her over the edge. That Dave can’t understand that she’s desirable enough to have another man interrupt their wedding, desirable enough to have a man _fight_ for her. She turns to Dave, and for the first time his face isn’t reassuring in its steadiness. It’s restricting, confining.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this,” she whispers. The words rush out of her mouth, and Alex knows it’s the wrong time, it’s the wrong place, but the words themselves aren’t wrong. She should have said them a long time ago instead of squashing them down.

Outside the church it’s sunny and the air feels fresh, clean. For the first time in a long time Alex feels like she can breathe.

“I love you,” Bo says.

“I’m sorry,” Alex says. “I don’t love you.”

She’s not sure who she’s talking to.


End file.
